Defensive architecture

Defensive architecture (also hostile architecture ) is a form of designing public buildings , rooms or objects in which the prevention of a certain use is intended, for example by the homeless , skaters , sprayers , drug addicts or animals. The use of hostile architecture is often controversial because the affected population groups are displaced without tackling the actual problem.

A prominent example in Germany is the design of the areas below the Kersten Miles Bridge in Hamburg in 2011. The discussion has not ebbed since then. In Great Britain, the so-called Camden Bank has sparked a broad discussion.

Frequent examples are benches with uneven seats or with brackets to prevent lying down. Other examples are

• Blue light (against drug users who inject drugs into a (blue) vein)
• Classical music (against the homeless)
• Sprinkler systems (against the homeless)
• Ultrasound (against adolescents)
• Pigeon spikes and other bird control measures
• embedding stones, shaped elements or bolts in otherwise flat surfaces

In terms of utility and aesthetics, the results are often unsatisfactory.

gallery

• Examples of defensive architecture
• 

  Camden Benches in London

• 

  Fence against homeless people in Stockholm

• 

  Concrete benches in front of Vienna's Westbahnhof

• 

  Seat pebbles in the Kleiner Tiergarten in Berlin

• 

  Thorns on fire hydrants in New York

• 

  Bolts next to a house entrance in Marseille

See also

• Bollard # road traffic

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jens Schneider: St. Pauli keeps homeless people at a distance with a fence Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 28, 2011.
2. ↑ Benjamin Laufer: Always Trouble with the Fencing Time Online, May 27, 2016.
3. ↑ Ben Quinn: Anti-homeless spikes are part of a wider phenomenon of 'hostile architecture' The Guardian, June 13, 2014.
4. ↑ Katja Rudolph: With blue light against junkies at the University of Hessische Niedersächsische Allgemeine, May 24, 2015.
5. ^ Frank Pergande: Classical Music Against Drug Consumption faz.net, November 15, 2016.
6. ^ Salon criticized over anti-homeless water sprinklers BBC, January 30, 2018.
7. ↑ Victoria Barnack: Ultrasound device Mosquito against young people Märkische Allgemeine